When Nuki first met MCZ|Daigo, the latter had been a new kid on the block in the arcade that Nuki frequented.

The year was 1996. Although both Nuki and Daigo were both 15 at the time, Nuki had already been a familiar face in his local arcade scene. He was known not only for his amazing ability to rack up humongous win streaks, but also for being a nice guy in general.

Despite his friendly disposition, however, when Nuki first saw Daigo in the arcades, he didn't even bother walking up to talk to him. He was too disgusted by the lame way that Daigo had been playing Guile in SF2 to want to, the first chapter of "Umehara Fighting Gamers", a new manga series based on The Beast's teenage years, reveals.

Although it's entirely in Japanese, you can read Umehara Fighting Gamers for free in a "Shuukan Georgia" smartphone app that's available on the iTunes and Google Play app stores.

The first two chapters, which came out today, not only features Daigo and Nuki in their teenage years; MCZ|Tokido and RZR|Xian also made cameo appearances in a brief introduction of the FGC to readers.

Check out their mugs in the images below, as well as a concise summary of what the first two chapters covered after the jump.

Click images for larger versions

After Nuki's brief encounter with Daigo, the two would not see each other again until well over a year later.

During that period of time, Nuki had temporarily left his local FGC for a bit. Shortly after he first saw Daigo, Nuki decided to enter a Street Fighter Alpha 2 Japan nationwide tournament, at the behest of a friend who jokingly suggested that he should enter and dominate.

Nuki ended up taking first place in the nationwide SFA2 tournament; but he had been disappointed. In the first place, his main reason for joining the tournament was to meet other strong players. Unfortunately, he did not find any that met his expectations.

And so he left the scene to start a band with his friends, using the money that he would normally reserve for playing fighting games, to buy instruments and to go out for frequent karaoke singing sessions.

While Nuki had left, however, Daigo was just getting started. A bunch of parallel panels in the manga show Daigo training in fighting games while Nuki had been singing karaoke and playing musical instruments.

Nuki would only return to the scene about a year later, when Capcom announced Darkstalkers 3 (Vampire Saviour). He had been captivated by Lilith's design from a game magazine that he read, and decided that he would go the one of the game's early location tests -- during which he racked up a win streak of over 99 wins (the counter could not go over 99).

Despite not having played fighting games that regularly, Nuki was convinced that he still got it. When Darkstalkers 3 came out, he stuck with his main girl Lilith, and decided to join a local DarkStalkers 3 tournament on a whim, thinking that it would be a breeze since he was the SFA2 Japan national champion.

And that's where he met Daigo for the second time in his life; as an opponent at the Darkstalkers 3 tournament.

Chapter 2 of the manga series stops there, right before two of Japan's five fighting game gods were able to face off against one another in a tournament for the very first time.

Don't forget to download the free app (only available through the Japanese regional iTunes and Google Play app stores - search for "Georgia") to show your support for this amazing manga series!

if i recall Daigo played...Bishamon and Phobos in VS2, and Jedah and Phobos in VS3, both i recall his Bishamon and Jedah was wickhe can also play a good Sasquatch and Aulbath too, but mostly for casuals or for fun

Let me explain why. He's trying to find some way in downgrading Daigo by implying that all this news by Ehubs is trying to get him to "save face", when all of these events were posted after Evo, and even included other players in it. All this would have been posted anyway,regardless on how Daigo did at Evo. Messias only to trying to fuel the fire, when there wasn't any to begin with.

Let me explain why. He's trying to find some way in downgrading Daigo by implying that all this news by Ehubs is trying to get him to "save face", when all of these events were posted after Evo, and even included other players in it. All this would have been posted anyway,regardless on how Daigo did at Evo. Messias only to trying to fuel the fire, when there wasn't any to begin with.

no im not tryin to downgradde daigo and "fuel the fire",im just stating a fact:after daigo loss at evo,i only see news about him at eventhubs,THIS IS A FACT,for instance i dont see any news abou infiltration,tokido,pr balrog etc.now you take your own conclusions and i take mine.peace.

no im not tryin to downgradde daigo and "fuel the fire",im just stating a fact:after daigo loss at evo,i only see news about him at eventhubs,THIS IS A FACT,for instance i dont see any news abou infiltration,tokido,pr balrog etc.now you take your own conclusions and i take mine.peace.

You dont see news about infiltration or rog because they dont have their own manga and book like Daigo.

no im not tryin to downgradde daigo and "fuel the fire",im just stating a fact:after daigo loss at evo,i only see news about him at eventhubs,THIS IS A FACT,for instance i dont see any news abou infiltration,tokido,pr balrog etc.now you take your own conclusions and i take mine.peace.

Well, guess what, there is no news about Infil or Rog because nothing is really happening with them, they're just living their lives, Daigo, however has more to him,than just being a top player, he has a manga based on him, and has interviews inducted because he's a mini celebrity in Japan, as well as game shows that were uploaded after Evo, with other top japanese players. In other words, your conclusions are baseless really..

There's a perception out there that Daigo is not as strong anymore.It's simply not true.

The variable that has becoming progressively worse is Ultra SF4, not the previous EVO champions.

In other words, the players ain't getting better, it's the game thats getting worse.

Let's see how the rest of you all do IF you manage to win EVO TWICE IN A ROW, then get your main character nerfed to dust, and/or changed in a way where you can no longer play it in a way which you find intuitive and enjoyable.

Well, guess what, there is no news about Infil or Rog because nothing is really happening with them, they're just living their lives, Daigo, however has more to him,than just being a top player, he has a manga based on him, and has interviews inducted because he's a mini celebrity in Japan, as well as game shows that were uploaded after Evo, with other top japanese players. In other words, your conclusions are baseless really..

there were many news about daigo after evo that had nothing to do with his manga lol,such a shame that we barley had news about luffy,the evo champ,and everyday after evo its always the same thing...before evo there was few news about daigo,so yes i can take my own conclusions.im not hating,im just saying my opinion btw.

there were many news about daigo after evo that had nothing to do with his manga lol,such a shame that we barley had news about luffy,the evo champ,and everyday after evo its always the same thing...before evo there was few news about daigo,so yes i can take my own conclusions.im not hating,im just saying my opinion btw.

It is not like EH is stalking Daigo even to the toilet to get news about him. Whatever news published regarding him, those were actual events/occasions/interviews floating around or sent by someone and in many cases like this one, it was not solely based on him rather he was only a part of the news. If there are news or interviews available for Luffy, it gets published too as it has been already. So stop bitching around. As other ppl said, there are not really as much major events that can be found about Luffy as Daigo. If you think there are and u r that much obsessed, go find some and send in the tips.

there were many news about daigo after evo that had nothing to do with his manga lol,such a shame that we barley had news about luffy,the evo champ,and everyday after evo its always the same thing...before evo there was few news about daigo,so yes i can take my own conclusions.im not hating,im just saying my opinion btw.

Yawn... Seen a good amount of Louffy and/or Rose coverage since evo also. So just stop with the nonsense you're spewing right now. Technically everyone but him lost at Evo anyway so why should eventhubs had bothered to post Yossan matches or snake eyes stuff like they did right? Your logic is dumb and your comments even dumber. If it bugs you that there's news on Daigo how about you don't click the story then? Is that really so hard? You're being a useless troll for no reason other than to be a troll.

Yawn... Seen a good amount of Louffy and/or Rose coverage since evo also. So just stop with the nonsense you're spewing right now. Technically everyone but him lost at Evo anyway so why should eventhubs had bothered to post Yossan matches or snake eyes stuff like they did right? Your logic is dumb and your comments even dumber. If it bugs you that there's news on Daigo how about you don't click the story then? Is that really so hard? You're being a useless troll for no reason other than to be a troll.

dude im just saying that after evo,90 % of eventhubs news is about daigo,THIS IS A FACT.what i find strange is that before evo there was few news about him,and now it seems that daigo is the only player worthy of making news,you know FGC isnt daigo only,thats whats pisses me of.and my comments arent dumb,im just saying my opinion without offending anyone,i hope you know what a commentary means ;D

dude im just saying that after evo,90 % of eventhubs news is about daigo,THIS IS A FACT.what i find strange is that before evo there was few news about him,and now it seems that daigo is the only player worthy of making news,you know FGC isnt daigo only,thats whats pisses me of.and my comments arent dumb,im just saying my opinion without offending anyone,i hope you know what a commentary means ;D

"dude im just saying that after evo,90 % of eventhubs news is about daigo,THIS IS A FACT."

I just checked the last 20 news stories on eventhubs...only one was about Daigo (this one here)..so what kind of math did you use to come up with that? 90%?! FACT?!

just go check RIGHT AFTER EVO until now,and you'll see what im talking about.

i went to scroll EH page 1-3, there's like 4-5 daigo news, 1 infiltration and 2 snakeeyes lol... the rest are not players news, so i'm not sure how u got your 90% really... for a page, there's like 14-15 news titles, and out of 3 pages, daigo only got 4 titles out of a possible 40+ news titles, highly doubt that's 90% lol.

i went to scroll EH page 1-3, there's like 4-5 daigo news, 1 infiltration and 2 snakeeyes lol... the rest are not players news, so i'm not sure how u got your 90% really... for a page, there's like 14-15 news titles, and out of 3 pages, daigo only got 4 titles out of a possible 40+ news titles, highly doubt that's 90% lol.

page 3 isnt right after evo...anyways,it may not be 90 %, but if you do some research you realize that eventhubs has become daigo's unofficial site,there are MUCH more news about daigo then any other player,and before evo it wasnt like this...

Its because Daigo has more stuff going on than those players thats all. Does Luffy have a manga coming out? BTW did anyone check out those youtube vids I posted its pretty interesting and Nuki is a great storyteller.

page 3 isnt right after evo...anyways,it may not be 90 %, but if you do some research you realize that eventhubs has become daigo's unofficial site,there are MUCH more news about daigo then any other player,and before evo it wasnt like this...

i don't know how you did your research, but page 7 was evo results, page 7 and page 6 combined only had 1 daigo news title out of a possible 30+ news.... it's certainly not daigo's unofficial site, maybe you are that obsessed with daigo that every unrelated other news is him in your mind, and u just had to come here and comment when there's a rare news for daigo LOL

i don't know how you did your research, but page 7 was evo results, page 7 and page 6 combined only had 1 daigo news title out of a possible 30+ news.... it's certainly not daigo's unofficial site, maybe you are that obsessed with daigo that every unrelated other news is him in your mind, and u just had to come here and comment when there's a rare news for daigo LOL

no dude,im not obsessed with daigo,far from it believe me...what i say is before evo there wasnt many news about daigo,after evo this is daigo unofficial site,it seems that daigo was the evo champ instead of luffy LOL.you see what i dont like about this is that daigo seems to be the only player worthy of making news,when there are so many great players out there,i mean FGC isnt only daigo,daigo and more daigo.

i don't know how you did your research, but page 7 was evo results, page 7 and page 6 combined only had 1 daigo news title out of a possible 30+ news.... it's certainly not daigo's unofficial site, maybe you are that obsessed with daigo that every unrelated other news is him in your mind, and u just had to come here and comment when there's a rare news for daigo LOL

no im not obssesed with daigo ,far from it believe me...what i say is that after evo,this has become daigo unofficial site,it seems that daigo was the evo champ and not luffy lol.i dont see any news about fuudo,gackt or momochi for instance,top 8 players,but i see news about daigo all the time,are you understanding my point?i dont like this cause it seems that daigo is the only player worthy of making news,when he had a very poor performance at evo,he shouldnt have this protagonism(or maybe its cause of that),or at least other players should have more as much protagonism as him.You know FGC isnt only daigo,daigo and more daigo...

no im not obssesed with daigo ,far from it believe me...what i say is that after evo,this has become daigo unofficial site,it seems that daigo was the evo champ and not luffy lol.i dont see any news about fuudo,gackt or momochi for instance,top 8 players,but i see news about daigo all the time,are you understanding my point?i dont like this cause it seems that daigo is the only player worthy of making news,when he had a very poor performance at evo,he shouldnt have this protagonism(or maybe its cause of that),or at least other players should have more as much protagonism as him.You know FGC isnt only daigo,daigo and more daigo...

the issue with your opinion is that it is not true and not a fact, EH did cover some interview on the current evo champ luffy after evo, they also covered an interview for fuudo as well, so obviously the FGC is not only daigo...

however, it should be noted also that with limited manpower there is only so much EH can do, and they did their best to prioritise their coverage, which may be why you are not seeing gackt momochi xian sako, as much as i would love to hear their thoughts on the game =)